Technical update on the boat

Upon receiving the boat and setting off from La Rochelle, we have had a few snagging problems, nothing serious and with a new boat we expected a few snagging problems, what has amazed us is the response from our dealer (M.I. Cats) and the Fountaine Pajot support team, who have been fantastic.

The Furuno electronics have an intermittent fault, which seems to be well know and reported by other owners, we have already had a visit from the Furuno agent in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, and confirmed as we thought that the Furuno unit was at fault, he did a thorough check of the installation and was more than happy with it.

The cockpit shower head had a very minor leak, so minor it has taken until now to identify it. I had ritual of every other day of sponging out the starboard engine bay, which amounted to a cup full of fresh water, not causing any problems just very irritating. The leak has now been fixed with a replacement part being supplied by our dealer.

The coach roof rubbing strip started to have a groove, which only after a relative short time would obviously not last long. A new coach roof rubbing strip has been supplied by our dealer, which is now fitted and is amazing, this is a vast improvement over the standard item.

On furling the genoa the furling line was catching the coach house roof and if left unchecked would have started to make a groove into the roof, a genoa furling plate has been supplied, again by our dealer, which also fits perfectly and also looks the part, brilliant!

Our journey down to the Canaries demonstrated that we needed pan holders, we requested the help from our dealer who promptly ordered and delivered them to us. The pan holders fit and work a treat, we will be trying these out in earnest when we set off for the Cape Verdes in September, and it will be a big help whilst under passage.

After a number of mosquito bites, we have decided to fit the optional extra fly screens, again with the help of our dealer (M.I. Cats) The Fly screens also fit and work, we recommend these items to anyone who has the Goiot hatches/port holes a quality piece of kit.

The heads tap/shower unit has an intermittent minor leak, which would result in a small amount of fresh water in the starboard bilge, another one of those irritating hunts for the suspect, which turned out to be the main body of the tap/shower unit. The unit has two flexi hoses, which run into the mixing unit, and the leak is coming from that location, a replacement body has been sent out from Fountaine Pajot via our dealer.

We would both like to take this opportunity in thanking our dealer M.I. Cats who have supported us with our minor problems, a big thank you for everything you have done for us, we are absolutely delighted with the support we have received from the M.I. Cats team with particular reference to Karen and Fountaine Pajot support team of course. We have absolutely no regrets in our choice of manufacturer & dealer and would not hesitate to recommend both companies.

Getting rid of these small snags is extremely pleasing, we are very proud of the boat and want to keep the boat looking and performing at its best. The boat is attracting lots of attention were ever we go, with no end of people taking photographs.

The only problem now being an engineer, I quite like doing the boat jobs, which are now fast running out, I suppose I will just have to content myself with the sailing, diving and fishing!